United Nations: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has expressed sadness at the loss of lives in a fire at the Serum Institute of India facility in Pune. Antonio Guterres is hoping that the incident is fully investigated, his spokesperson has said. Five men died after a fire broke out in a five-storeyed under-construction building in the Serum Institute of India’s Manjari premises Thursday.
The Manjari facility is where the Covishield vaccines are being made. The building where fire broke out is one kilometre from the Covishield vaccine manufacturing unit.
“…We, obviously, are saddened by the loss of life. We send our condolences to the families impacted. We hope the fire is fully investigated,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the Secretary-General, said at the daily press briefing Thursday.
Dujarric was responding to a question on whether the UN chief has a comment on the fire at the Serum Institute. The CEO of the institute Adar Poonawalla earlier said that the Covishield vaccine production will not be hit due to the fire.
“I would like to reassure all governments & the public that there would be no loss of #COVISHIELD production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies at @SerumInstIndia,” Poonawalla tweeted on Thursday.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said the state government has ordered a probe into the fire.